Matthew Emme at his computer in Minnesota wrote:
: Revolutions in any field of knowledge take time to filter to the main
: stream. Science and medicine are notoriously conservative and need to be
: convinced that a given development is more substance than hype. An
: extension of the old saying, "Do not be the first person on the block to
: prescribe a new drug, but also do not be the last one to."
Matthew,
I respect this comment and your essay on the interplay of Simmelweis,
Lister, Pasteur and Holmes; but I would suggest to you that the paragraph
you have written above betrays you.
Because in restating the conundrum I've posed in this way
you tend to confirm my assertion that in all the time which
has passed between then and now, medicine has not transcended
the prejudice within it which may more often than not,
hinder its own progress.
Bert Gold
San Francisco